Providing information, education, and training to build knowledge, develop skills, and change attitudes that will lead to increased independence, productivity, self determination, integration and inclusion (IPSII) for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

Computerworld Honors Program Recognizes
State Government Reform Initiative and
Digital Document Imaging Program Issues
Standards for Electronic and Information Technology

(ST. PAUL) – Minnesota has received two awards from the international Computerworld Honors Program for the statewide Drive to Excellence government reform initiative and for a Department of Human Services document-imaging program that employs people with developmental disabilities.

The Drive to Excellence Transformation Roadmap is the strategy and initial action plan for implementing Governor Pawlenty's mandate for reforming the executive branch of state government. The Transformation Roadmap, announced in early 2005, includes 24 business cases (two have been completed and six are in progress) for change that would reduce overlap, redundancy and duplication in state government and improve how citizens access government services. Additional details are available online at www.excellence.state.mn.us.

The Department of Human Services hired 16 Minnesota State Operated Community Services (MSOCS) clients for a project that converted more than 3.5 million paper documents into electronic files. The project's success has led to greater opportunities for employer and employee: Today, 16 workers fill two shifts, from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., at the agency's central document conversion center in St. Paul, and more than 10 million documents are now stored digitally in a virtual file. The inspiration for hiring MSOCS clients came from an earlier effort at the Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities, in which thousands of pages of information the organization was storing were converted to electronic files and posted on its web site (www.mnddc.org).

For almost two decades, Computerworld Honors has acknowledged those individuals and organizations that have used information technology to benefit society. This year's ComputerWorld Honors Laureates were announced during the 18th Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony earlier this month in Washington, D.C. Additional information is available online at www.cwhonors.org.

The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.